Pacer Advisors Inc. Acquires New Holdings in Spire Inc. $SR

Pacer Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of Spire Inc. (NYSE:SR) in the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund bought 13,395 shares of the utilities provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,092,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of SR. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Spire by 0.8% during the second quarter. Ameritas Investment Partners Inc. now owns 17,461 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,274,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Inspire Investing LLC increased its position in Spire by 2.8% in the 3rd quarter. Inspire Investing LLC now owns 5,590 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $456,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D raised its stake in Spire by 0.6% during the 2nd quarter. State of New Jersey Common Pension Fund D now owns 25,636 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $1,871,000 after acquiring an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Walleye Capital LLC raised its stake in Spire by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. Walleye Capital LLC now owns 4,352 shares of the utilities provider’s stock valued at $341,000 after acquiring an additional 214 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Smith Moore & CO. boosted its position in Spire by 5.2% during the 2nd quarter. Smith Moore & CO. now owns 4,470 shares of the utilities provider’s stock worth $326,000 after acquiring an additional 222 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 87.36% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently commented on SR. BTIG Research raised Spire to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 22nd. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of Spire from $95.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, December 17th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of Spire in a research note on Monday. Mizuho upped their price target on shares of Spire from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, November 20th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Spire from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $76.00 to $89.00 in a report on Wednesday, October 29th. Three equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, three have assigned a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $88.55.

Spire Price Performance

Shares of Spire stock opened at $82.75 on Friday. Spire Inc. has a 52 week low of $65.15 and a 52 week high of $91.11. The company has a current ratio of 0.32, a quick ratio of 0.21 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.07. The stock has a market cap of $4.89 billion, a PE ratio of 18.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.49 and a beta of 0.68. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $85.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $80.09.

Spire (NYSE:SR) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Friday, November 14th. The utilities provider reported ($0.47) earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of ($0.46) by ($0.01). Spire had a return on equity of 8.78% and a net margin of 10.96%.The business had revenue of $334.10 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $439.56 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned ($0.54) EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 13.7% on a year-over-year basis. Spire has set its FY 2027 guidance at 5.650-5.850 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 5.250-5.450 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Spire Inc. will post 4.5 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Spire Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Monday, January 5th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.825 per share. This is a boost from Spire’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.79. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, December 11th. This represents a $3.30 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.0%. Spire’s payout ratio is currently 75.00%.

Spire Profile

Spire Inc (NYSE: SR), formerly known as The Laclede Group, is a regulated natural gas distribution company headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Through its three operating divisions—Spire Missouri, Spire Alabama and Spire Mississippi—the company delivers natural gas to more than 1.7 million residential, commercial and industrial customers. Spire’s service territory spans key markets in the central and southern United States, including metropolitan St. Louis, central Alabama and central Mississippi.

Founded in 1857 as the Laclede Gas Light Company, the business has grown through strategic acquisitions, notably Alabama Gas Corporation in 2013 and Mississippi Gas in 2016.